Every director and board member of a community arts education provider would like to have a large endowment, reserve cash in the bank, and a surplus at the end of every year. Unfortunately, for most organizations, this is a dream, not reality. Without these indisputable but hard-to-attain signs of financial strength, how can an organization assess its financial well-being?

Financial health is about more than just reserves and endowment balances. Having a large budget or a complex accounting system doesn’t always lead to management excellence and long-term success. Just as personal health depends on healthy behaviors, the financial health of a nonprofit organization depends on management behavior, including policies and practices.

Nonprofit Financial Management Websites

As the emerging national standard for data collection in the arts and culture sector, this nationwide project collects and disseminates comprehensive, longitudinal data designed to increase management capacity, identify strengths and challenges, and inform decisionmaking.